*   *   *   *
  LOGOLOG
a weblog of wordplay by Eric Harshbarger

Scrabble, redux

So, last week, out of blue (as with most of my motivations and inspirations), I decided to start rememorizing Scrabble words. I played Scrabble competitively in the past but three years ago quit cold-turkey. But for whatever reason I woke up on a Wednesday morning and thought to myself, "I might actually like to play again."

Maybe I feel like I'm just not busy enough... what with a new Lego mosaic project just started (more on that later), my continuing work with Mind Candy, and my teaching a Pre-Calculus/Trigonometry class this semester at Auburn University. Yeah... I have waaaaay to much spare time.

Actually, I'm still not sure I will even play again... what I am sure of is that I want to start reviewing all the words again (yeah, I just might be crazy enough to memorize all of the acceptable Scrabble words... and not actually play again -- but I probably will... when I feel I'm ready).

I used to handwrite all of my flashcards for studying (the front of the flashcard would have an "alphagram", say the seven letters: AEELRST, and I would recall all the 7-letter words that are formed with those letters: ELATERS, REALEST, RELATES, RESLATE, and STEALER). I told myself that I would not lug around all of those cards again... if I were going to do this I would figure out some way to review them electronically and portably.

So, despite never having owned a handheld device (I still refuse to own a cell phone for God's sake), I researched, bought, learned how, and wrote an "alphagram quiz" program for a Palm Tungsten E2 doodad. I did all of this in about 3 days. By Saturday evening I was once again reviewing words.

I write this article one week later and am currently at about 95% recall efficiency with the first 2800 seven letter alphagrams (which encompasses about 4200 words). I can review about 500 alphagrams per hour.

I still have a looong way to go to get back to where I was when I stopped (at that time I knew about 15000 each of the seven and eight letter words -- plus all the twos, threes, fours, and most of the fives). And then I'll have even more to learn brand new if I want to try to get them all.

The 2008 Nationals are in Orlando, Florida in July. That's a relatively short drive for me. Maybe I'll be ready by then.

Or maybe I'll wake up one morning between now and then and think, "eh... screw it... I have other things to do."

-- Eric

[22 September 2007]
   
LOGOLOG


Archive
 Box Office Pa...
 Anti-Palindro...1
 Palindromic S...
 Dos Equis
 Box Office Pa...
 My Initial Su...
 Incomparable1
 Rock & Roll1
 Aye, Qs!
 This & That
 It's All Abou...1
 Non-Crashing ...
 Pseudo-palind...2
 Box Office Cu...
 All In A Row1
 Redividers
 Chemical Symb...1
 Over 636 Pali...2
 Omino Font
 Front Hook: S1
 History of Bo...1
 Front Hook: R
 Well, Moviego...6
 Front Hook: Q
 Front Hook: P
 Front Hook: O
 Front Hook: N1
 Front Hook: M
 Front Hook: L
 Front Hook: K
 Front Hook: J1
 Front Hook: I2
 Front Hook: H4
 Front Hook: G3
 Front Hook: F
 Front Hook: E
 Front Hook: D
 Front Hook: C
 Front Hook: B1
 Front Hook: A
 Multiple Solu...1
 And The Nomin...
 I want a cut ...2
 Stew-word-shi...1
 Scrabble Play...
 The answer is...2
 Pangrams and ...
 Pangrams and ...
 Secret Weapon...
 Colorful Citi...2
 Song, Song, S...2
 Near-Pangramm...2
 Favorite Numb...3
 Periodic Tabl...1
 Body Of Music...
 Filmed In Tec...3
 Cryptic Femal...1
 Colorful Film...1
 Elemental Bod...5
 Ambigrams Rev...1
 Calculated Wo...2
 Teacher Torto...2
 True Story
 Polly-Gone
 Sending My Re...
 A-B-C-D-ary1
 Word Dice3
 That Does It!3
 Lexomino Puzz...
 Morse Code Pa...5
 Bringing Ingo...7
 NIN
 Dot, Dot, Das...2
 Repeated lett...3
 Palindromic P...7
 Palindromic P...
 Sick Pun4
 Typesetting 2...2
 Heterogrammic...5
 Plurals1
 Phoneys1
 What is a "wo...
 Hollywood Nam...
 Front Hooks
 Half Price
 Through The 7...
 W4...1
 ;
 Bourne To Run4
 DVDs2
 V for Very Di...
 Scrabble: Ash...
 Scrabble, red...1
 A=1, B=2, C=32
 4 Sides To Ev...4
 Periodic Tabl...2
 BIVOUAC4
 String of Mov...3
 Where's Winsl...4
 para-palindro...4
 pun
 Standardized ...2
 Unintended Am...1
 Web Too Dah T...1
 Backronym2
 Fishy
 Too clever by...4
 Another wordy...
 Commercialize...1
 Beyond BOOKKE...7
 Not Positive ...11
 Scrabble Tabl...2
 Puzzle1
 Negativity
 Lightning1
 Another Pan-v...1
 Not So Frugal
 Not So Funny ...1
 Memory of GAM...5
 Musical Wordp...
 830
 Funny1
 Chemical Abbr...1
 Movie Rebuses7
 Television Sh...1
 Even More Het...
 More Heterogr...3
 Oooooo...2
 Those crazy H...2
 NFL4
 Wordmonger2
 Alli says, "A...
 A Puzzling St...3
 THE MAD ANAGR...5
 Synonymous Co...1
 CARNELIOUS3
 -und2
 Batteries2
 Names13
 Rubik Font3
 Under A Spell
 State The Rea...2
 7x7 Scrabble ...
 7x7 Scrabble ...
 Scrabble Squa...4
 Tube Maps2
 GAMES Magazin...
 Superbowl: ST...
 Letter Shifti...1
 Projects of L...
 Slices of PI,...
 Slices of PI,...
 Heterogrammic...
 QWERTY vs. Dv...2
 Word Chemistr...
 Heterogrammic...1
 Pangrammic Cr...1
 Comments for ...1
 Ambigrams
 Alphabet Soup4
 Logo
 Alpha-Pangram...
 Book List
 Scrabble Tile...
 D'oh!
 Letter Shifti...
 Palindromes
 Pangrammic Cr...
 Phobias1
 Pentominoes
 Word Searchin...1
 Welcome1

 
*   *
*   *
 
Comments about this article:
I like the article. I myself haven't played scrabble that much, but will be using it to teach my children. I stumbled on your website looking for Fort Worth History and found you lego building the skyline. I like what you do and hopefully this will motivate my 5 and 3 year old into building even more spaceships from their lego collection.

Posted by: francine Sustaita


 
*   *
*   *
 
Leave a comment on LOGOLOG about the article: Scrabble, redux
Your Name:  

Your comment (HTML tags will be removed):


Day of week today is:   


 
*   *
*   *
 
Copyright © 2005 - 2007, Eric C. Harshbarger
 
*   * *   *